Poll Gets a Double Dose of the Blues

Spare a thought for Graham Poll, once regarded as the Premiership’s top referee but now on the crest of a slump. It all started when he famously got his figures in a twist at the World Cup last summer and just when he could be excused for thinking that the fuss was dying down he had the misfortune to be allocated a game at Stamford Bridge, where great demands are made upon referees.

It may safely be assumed that our Graham, like many officials before him, did not come up to their expectations – in fact he fell particularly foul of the Chelsea squad for daring to send off their captain. This outrage was sufficient to trigger a blanket condemnation from the Special One (“Every decision was against us”) and his backing group, The Sour Grapes (otherwise known as Messrs Terry, Lampard and Cole).

And if all that wasn’t enough, all hell broke loose at Goodison Park in his very next game when he red carded James McFadden, allegedly for calling him a cheat (well, that was the gist of it anyway) because he declined to reward Andy Johnson for falling down by awarding a penalty.

So on the face of it, Mr Poll seems to be in serious trouble. Condemned by Chelsea, apparently for getting pretty much everything wrong, then castigated by Everton, whose trusting manager claimed that it must have been a penalty because Andy Johnson thought it was, and it couldn’t have been a red card because McFadden denied calling Graham a cheat.

Where’s the integrity?